Homer: Iliad Book 22

Description

Book XXII recounts the climax of the Iliad: the fatal encounter between the main defender of Troy and the greatest warrior of the Greeks, which results in the death of Hector and Achilles' revenge for the death of his friend Patroclus. At the same time it adumbrates Achilles' own death and the fall of Troy. This edition will help students and scholars better appreciate this key part of the epic poem. The introduction summarises central debates in Homeric scholarship, such as the circumstances of composition and the literary interpretation of an oral poem, and offers synoptic discussions of the structure of the Iliad, the role of the narrator, similes and epithets. There is a separate section on language, which provides a compact list of the most frequent Homeric characteristics. The commentary offers up-to-date linguistic guidance, and elucidates narrative techniques, typical elements and central themes.

Irene J. F. de Jong holds the chair of Ancient Greek at the University of Amsterdam. She has published extensively on Homer, Herodotus and Euripides and is editing a multi-volume history of ancient Greek narrative. Some of her key publications are: Narrators and Focalizers: The Presentation of the Story in the Iliad (1987, reprinted 2004), A Narratological Commentary on the Odyssey (Cambridge University Press, 2001) and, with A. Rijksbaron, Sophocles and the Greek Language: Aspects of Diction, Syntax, and Semantics (2006).

'De Jong's emphases are outlined in the preface. She says that she will focus on 'Homer's language ...and his narrative style ... In my own experience, she accomplishes a great deal more, bringing out meanings and connections that cast book 22 in an entirely fresh light and reveal this book's close connections to the Iliad as a whole. After reading this commentary, I felt I had experienced a thorough review and renewal of my Iliadic self.' Edith Foster, Bryn Mawr Classical Review